“That garden is just like paradise to me,” Luna said. “The reason that Southeastern San Diego has such a high rate of poverty and chronic disease is because of the history of being cut off from resources that promote health and well-being,” McClain said.
The managing director of Project New Village operations, Diane Moss, said her community is at a loss for nutritional and approximate resources. The produce is fresh and high quality, said Rodney West, manager of Project New Village who's also a master gardener. Many visitors never even touch their wallets, though: Project New Village was the recipient of the Achieving Health Literacy grant, which is administered through the University of California San Diego's Center for Community Health and provides funding that Project New Village then hands out as $10 vouchers in exchange for participation in a brief nutrition education session and survey.
“I think it is fundamental to universities embedded in communities that they are directly involved with their communities in positive ways,” McClain said. “I think that's part of the purpose is not to be in our ivory towers all the time, that we need to actually be exchanging resources with our communities.”